Note 14 — CHAP. IV. PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO—continued.
Reading edition
No one had suffered the penalty of death for a long period before July 22, 1819, when a wretched criminal was hanged. He had stabbed five or six men, and it was said his punishment would have been commuted for transportation to Africa, had he not imbrued his hands in the blood of a pregnant female, whom he stabbed mortally.